Floor covering and process of making same



Aug. 20, 1929. 1.. KIRSCHBRAUN FLOOR COVERING AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAMEOriginal Filed April 18, 1921 Surface Coaflhg.

Ph es Con aiming Asphalf.

Patented Aug. 20, 1929.

UNITED STATES 1,725,646 PATENT OFFICE.

IilliS'JKER KIRSCHBRAUN, OF EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.

FLOOR COVERING AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

Application filed April 18, 1921, Serial No. 462,355. Renewed February4, 1929.

and products of said earlier application, but

is more particularly directed in the specific application hereinafterreferred to, to a floor covering such as felt base linoleums, theexposed surfaces of which may be either ornamented or monotone inappearance.

In the present manufacture of felt base linoleums, the dry felt is firstmade on the usual single cylinder machine, and heretofore it has notbeen practical to make this felt on a multicylinder machine for thereason that the plies would separate, more particularly during the tanksaturating operation. In addition, it is well understood in the art thatfelt formed under a single cylinder machine will not be as smooth or asstrong as if it were formed on a multicylinder machine.

There is still another objection to the present method of making feltbase linoleums, in that before the upper surface can be ornamented, itis necessary to neutralize or blank off the black asphalt with whichthesheetis entirely saturated, by means of a plurality of paint coatsbefore coloring or printing the upper surface of the sheet. In addition,these paint coats are necessary in order to produce a smooth, evensurface upon which the desired design or other ornamentation may beprinted. The single figure is a cross sectional.

perspective view of the product produced by this process disclosing theseparate plies which are united in the felting of the sheet.

Still further, the use of a single cylinder machine very materiallylimits the character of the fibre which may be used. For example, thefibres must be relatively free, such as rags or rag stock. On the otherhand, a multicylinder machine permits the use of a large va riety offibres, and in addition, fibres of different character for differentplies.

The flooring of the present invention can be made on the standardmulticylinder paper machine, a wide variety of fibres may be used, whichfibres may be of a different character in different plies. The tanksaturation operation may be entirely eliminated. Instead, the sheet, andmore particularly, the inner plies, are saturated or impregnated with apitchy or bituminous material, such as asphalt. l urthermore, differentplies may have different amounts of bitumen or asphalt of differentcharacter. Furthermore, in the present invention the necessity of. theusual paint coats for blanking offthe asphalt, before the base isprinted, is obviated. Instead, one or both of the outermost plies are ormay be calender coated as the sheet passes through the calender rolls ofthe paper machine. This calender coating not only serves to waterproofthe outer plies which are more or less devoid of the bitumen or asphalt,but also produces a particularly effective surface for printing, es'-'pecially where the calender coating is made of linseed oil, stearinepitch, ehinawood oil, or the like. A surace of this character becomespermanently bonded with the print coats forming in effect a unitaryflooring of permanent character.

It is also desirable that the color of the outer plies and the calendercoating should be of a more or less neutral tone, or adapted as aneffective background to the subsequent pattern or design printedthereon. This may be accomplished by treating the fibre Which forms theouter plies or the plies on which the design is printed with suitabledies or pigments in the heaters or in the calender coat itself. As forexample, the linseed oil itself ma contain soluble dyes.

ne manner in which the process can be carried out may be described asfollows:

First, make a non-adhesive emulsion, which may be made as follows: Aheavy paste is made of clay, which is highly colloidal in character,with water. This paste is heated to a temperature approximately abovethe melting point of the asphalt to be used. An emulsion mixer isprovided which is capable of producing by agitation an emulsification ofthe clay mixture with asphalt. The clay mixture is first established inthe emulsifier and, after being brought to the proper temperature, theasphalt in heated, liquid condition, and above the boiling point ofwater, is gradually introduced. The action of the blades of the mixerproduces a complete dispersion of the asphalt throughout the clay andwater mixture. The mixer is so constructed that after the preliminaryemulsion is made of the proper viscosity, a stream of asphalt and astream of clay-water suspension can be fed constantl to the mixer, Whilethe finished emulsion is heing continuously withdrawn therefrom. Variouskinds of asphalts .may. be used for this purpose; also various pitchessuch as animal and vegetable pitches, drying oils hardened with suitablegums, coal tar, gas tar pitches and analogous bodies, either bituminousor of a pitchy nature. Oxidized asphalts and stearine pitches areparticularly adapted for the purposes of pro ducing this flooring,especially in the case of stearine pitch which lends itself to theproduction of a colorable product.- These pitches will vary in meltingpoint from approximately 120 degrees F. to 220 degrees F., dependingupon the end to be achieved, and emulsification is so carried out andthe proportions of the clay and asphalt and water so regulated, that theresulting productis non-adhesive, smooth, readily thinned with water,and contains the asphalt particles in a very fine state of dispersion,carrying the adsorbed clay as a protective coating. In making theemulsion, it is sometimes advisable to add a small percentage ofaluminum sulphate to the clay in order to enable the asphalt to morereadily stock with its contained asphalt distributed retain thecolloidalprotective coating.

It is to be understood, of course, that the emulsion may be made in themanner above stated, or may be perhaps made in other ways, so'long as anon-adhesive emulsion is formed, in which the water and clay form theexternal and the bitumen or asphalt the internal phase of the emulsion.

By a non-adhesive emulsion, as more particularly applied to the presentinvention, I mean that the asphalt or pitch is so emulsified with clayor analogous material that it may be commercially run over a papermachine with fibre stock, contacting with wires or blankets underpressure or couch and press rolls, without gumming up the machine ormaterially interfering with its operation. Whereas, the same asphalt orpitch, unless treated in the manner above described, or in some similarmanner, could not be run over the paper machine without gumming up andstopping the felting operation.

This emulsion is then mixed with the fibrous pulp either in the beaterengine, or is introduced with the stock through the screens.

In connection with the use of the asphalt in the form described, it isextremely advantageous to use therewith a fixing agent which has theproperties of causing the asphaltic prior to its passing particles withits clay protecting agent to seek contact with the fibrous stock, andfor the articles thereof to attach themselves to the fibres. In thisway, theasphalt is most readily carried into the sheet during thefelting operation, together with its protective agent. In order toproduce this fixing eflt'ect, the emulsion described above is firsttreated with silicate of soda, in proportion, for example, of l to,2percent of silicate of, soda to the amount ofasphalt used by weight.After the thorough admixture of the silicate of soda and dilution withwater, an excess aluminum sulphate is added, producing the fixingefl'ect previously described. This fixing effect may be produced byother agents than those mentioned.

The introduction of silicate of soda and aluminum sulphate may beaccomplished readily in the heaters where the asphalt is mixed in thisway, but when introduced with the stock at the screens, the treatment ofthe and set upon the fibres.

The emulsion previously referred to is preferably mixed only with thefibrous pulp which is to be used for making the inner plies. Forexample, on .a five cylinder paper machine where the same stock is usedfor both liner and filler, it is prefer-able to introduce the asphaltfor each mould at the screen. This is accomplished by flowing theemulsion in its proper proportion and with the proper amount of waterinto the intake of the centrifugal pump which drawsthe water from theinside of the cylinder mould, and returns the same toa mix box andscreens for mixture with the thick pulp. In this way, the asphalt may beincorporated into any one or all of the plies, and the quantities of theasphalt relative to the fibre can be regulated in any desired proportionand upon any desired mould.

For the purpose, however, of making a free stock, but the essentialrequirement in this particular is a stock that will form smooth and willhave great strength capable at the same time of taking a coloradvantageously. The fibres for the outer ply may be kraft, sulphite orrope stock. In certain cases leather can be advantageously introducedinto the outer plies. When it is desired to carry a color in the outerplies, this is accomplished by introducing either an aniline color or apigment into the heaters, and setting the same in the usual manner withalum. Where leather is used, this is advantageously treated with causticsoda, and subsequently precipitated with alum. -Any sizing material canbe introduced so as to make it water resistant or oil resistant in tothe liner in the well known manner, thus lessening the amount ofimpregnating coating applied to the calender rolls or the sheet may becoated with casein at the calender-s prior to the application of theoil.

In carrying out this operation on a fivecylinder machine, three fillermoulds usually carry the asphalt, whereas the outer moulds form thefibre stock. Each mould forms its web in the usual manner, the pliesbeing united at the couch rolls, the sheet being carried along from theblankets through the process in the usual manner. The introduction ofthe asphalt does not interfere with the paper-forming operation in theusual way. After the sheet passes from the wet end of the machine, it istransferred to the driers, where the water is evaporated and heat is.maintained suflicient to cause the asphalt in the in-, ner plies tofuse and coalesce. The effect of the outer plies is to blank off fromcontact with the blankets and apparatus the asphaltcarrying inner plies,thereby making it possible to maintain the liners in substantiallyasphalt-free condition.

After passing the driers, the sheet may be fed through the calenderrolls where there is applied the treating oils previously described. Theoils which are used for this treatment must be of sutficiently liquidnature either normally or through the application of heat that whenpassing the calender rolls on the hot sheet, they are uniformly spreadover the surface and strike into the sheet, so that the paper may beimmediately rolled up without tendency for the laps to stick to gether.

In certain cases, the sheet thus treated may be used as a finishedflooring. In such case, however, it will have a monotone appearance, andpreferablythe Wearing surface, which in this case, is the liner, will becomposed of a wear-resisting stock such as an admixture of kraft andleather. This, when subsequently treated on the calenders as described,either with linseed oil or with any suitable drying varnish, will leavea finished wearing surface which is relatively tough, durable,water-resisting, and impenetrable to the grinding in of grit.

On the other hand, where a printed. product is required, the liner stockis prepared and colored accordingly and the sheet which has beenmanufactured as described, is transferred in rolls to a printing machinewhere the desired pattern is printed thereon.

For example, where a flooring isto be prepared carrying a white tiledesign, the liner may be made of a mixture of half kraft and half news,colored either with ochre in the heaters or with auramine. -The machineshould be so adjusted as to form this liner of about .007 of an inch inthickness. The filler in such case may be advantageously formed of amixture of 50% news, 25% dark cottons, and 25% of cotton linters,carrying asphalt to the extent. of 100 to 150% by weight relative to theWeight of the fibres in the inner ply. This stock may be formed on threeinner moulds of about .015 of an inch in thickness in each mould, givinga total thickness of .045 of an inch of saturated inner stock, andapproximately .015 of asphalt free outer stock.

For a sheet of the above character, the calender coating may be oxidizedchinawood oil, which is of such a degree of fluidity as to strike intothe outer plies without leaving an excess upon the surface such as wouldprevent the immediate reeling of the prodnot into large rolls.

I claim as my invention:

1. A floor covering consisting of a base formed of a plurality of feltedplies, the fibres of one ply being of a different char acter than thefibres of another ply, a continuous pitchy medium extending andsaturating through the inner ply or plies, the exposed, outer ply beingsubstantially devoid of such medium, an oily saturant for said outerply, and a predetermined color and a designapplied on said outer ply.

2. A floor covering consisting of a base formed of a plurality of feltedplies, a con-.

tinuous pitchy medium extending through the inner ply or plies, theexposed, outer ply being substantially devoid of such medium, an oilysaturant for said outer ply, and a predetermined color and a designapplied on said outer ply.

3. A floor covering consisting of a base formed of a plurality of feltedplies, the fibres of one pl being of a difierent character than the ti btinuous pitchy medium extending through the inner ply or plies, theexposed, outer ply being substantially devoid of such medium, a dryingoil forming an impregnating coating for said outer ply, and apredetermined color applied to said outer ply.

4; A-floor covering consisting of a base.

res of another ply, a conpitchy body dispersed therethrough, over thecylinders of a multicylinder paper machine, slmultaneously forming afelted ply of a fibrous stock on an outer cylinder of said machinewithout the addition of said emulsified matrix, sheeting and drying thestock,

coalescing the pitchy binder in the inner plies, calendering the sheetand thereafter a lyin an impre mating coating to an outer pl the i' eofof a difi'erent character, than said pitchy medium, and therebyproviding a surface on which a pattern or design may be readily printed.I v

6. A process of making a floor "covering, consisting in passing amixture of fibrous stock and a non-adhesive emulsified matrix containingwater, a colloidal agent and a pitchy body dispersed therethrough, overthe cylinders of a multicylinder paper machine, simultaneously forming afelted ply of a. fibrous stock on.an outer cylinder of said machinewithout the addition of said emulsified matrix, sheeting and dryingthestock, coalescing thepitchy binder in the inner plies, calenderingthesheetand simultaneously applying an impregnating coating to. an outerply thereof in the form of a drying oil of a different color than thatof 1 said pitchy medium, and thereby providing a surface on which apattern or design may be readily printed.

LESTER KIRSCHBRAUN, v

